Stop this loot of our hard earned money by supporting defunct and inefficient public sector companies & being blind to private operators !!

Praful Patel

Minister of State for Civil Aviation

Ministry of Civil Aviation,

Government of India

Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan,
Safdarjung airport
New Delhi -110003

Dear Mr. Patel,

I have been reading all that Niira Radia said about you, ‘ That, you ruined the Aviation Sector & that you work for Naresh Goyal’ . Well, i am not in a position to be judgemental about her comments .Nevertheless , as a frequent flyer ‘common man’ , and a concerned Indian, i am sending you some action points , which will be subject to RTI enquiry by January 16, 2011., in case , no action is taken or no written response from the Ministry within 15 days .

I know that you have been proactively involved though the media, for showing your concerns for high fares , and trying to bring down the fares of the domestic airlines . I am sure that you could at least create media bites because of the same . Through this appeal for action , i wish to share my view points on some action areas that might be worth your getting into, and showing your commitment towards the passengers and the common man .

Today , i received a message from my friend from BJP, who had a harrowing time due to delayed Spice jet flight at the Delhi airport , he was made to wait for hours without being even served water !! I expect your ministry to come up with Guidelines for treating passengers ( both domestic and international ) for Foggy conditions or any technical reasons etc, resulting in delays beyond 30 minutes , and cancellations . I expect you to ‘instruct’ the airlines with a penalty clause to provide ‘healthy refreshments’, in case of any delay beyond 30 Minutes as per the dietary guidelines . Also, the Ministry of Civil Aviation or the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or the Airports Authority of India must make alternative arrangements for dealing with delayed passengers at your cost (FOC) for making two free phone call ( one at the boarding city and other to the destination city ) to the relatives or friends etc , and for refreshments like hot beverage during winters and cold beverage during summers & a meal for each two hours of delay . AAI and airlines are collecting heavy airport and terminal taxes for each flight that we take. Should it not be a joint responsibility of the airlines and the AAI ? Please set up a toll-free number operational 24 X7 for such complaints . Need your response on this within 7 days

I was in Bhubaneswar in November to attend a conference which was also attended by ISRO scientists . While we were discussing our travel itineraries , i was informed by them that PSU & government employees are only entitled to travel via NACIL airlines ( Air India & Indian Airlines ). So for travel that could have been done for less than Rs.8500 by any LCA’s ( low cost carriers ), these people paid upwards of Rs.28000.00 because NACIL airlines does not fly direct to Bhubaneswar . Two questions to your ministry . Private airlines fly to Bhubaneswar ! So for sure , it is a good sector , else the private airlines would never fly on these routes . So did NACIL never consider this Or it stopped flights to this sector for any other ‘considerations’. Please clarify with details of the review meeting minutes whether this was ever considered ? Second ; Why should Government employees or PSU’s be allowed to use only NACIL airlines ? Rather i must ask the Ministry of Labour , HRD or the PM through this communiqué , why is there a restriction for government and PSU employees to use only the state-run company services like NACIL or BSNL or MTNL ? Despite this monopolistic practices and captive customers, both these corporations are under heavy losses !! Remember , that PSU employee pays Rs.28000.00 instead of Rs.85000.00 for flying with inefficient NACIL airlines . With this , you are being unfair to the market , and we the tax payers are being put to a double loss to encourage the inefficiency and corruption in the PSU backed service providers and still fund their losses !! Please stop this stupid rule . Let us make our PSU sector to be competitive to get customers. Government backed & public funding of the losses must be stopped immediately .Just consider that the Rs.20000.00 extra that the ISRO scientists paid to travel to Bhubaneswar was coming from our money ( taxes ), and despite giving this captive business to NACIL , it continues to bleed every minute , which is again funded by our monies . You are gonna fund these losses by bailing them from our tax money . My suggestion , government nationalised Air India when it was owned by TATA’s. Last month only , Ratan Tata had said that , he was being asked Rs.15 crore to start the airline business . To my surprise , instead of taking this serious investigation further ( you could have got a CBI inquiry done for all the airlines that have got the license , and how much did they paid to get their airline license ? Instead, you asked Ratan Tata to name the minister, thus obfuscating the real issue and letting it die slowly ). Now , you must give NACIL back to TATA’s and let them run it efficiently , and you remain a 40 % financial share holder and don’t meddle in the operations . We, the tax payers would save our hard-earned money in funding the losses every year , and have a much better experience flying the same airlines under TATA management

Lastly , i have sent a note on October 22, 2010 that healthy foods be served at all airports and all airlines . I am attaching the PDF file in this email , and also pasting some of the action points for your action

Issue guidelines & standards ( and enforce them ) with regards to the food served in airlines , railways , other public transports, government canteens, private dining establishments, School canteens & packed foods ( all forms )

 All such foods / foods items must carry the calorific intake for each serving

 The customer must be given a choice of low-calorie, low glycemic index, and zero cholesterol options rather than forcing them to eat unhealthy foods that adds to the disease burden of this nation.

 Above all, all packaged food companies must carry tips for good health on the individual packs – at least a one liner if not more!!

P.N. I receive over hundred email messages every day , and it is not possible to respond to all the emails promptly. Also , that the response time can be as high as thirty days or more . Please do not hesitate to follow up or sms at +91 922 33 44 542 in case you have a message which needs to be attended on a priority.The information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message, or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Please immediately contact myself, if you have received this message in error. Finally, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The sender accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. Thanking you